Pheonix Building - Pittsford, NY - U.S. National Register of Historic Places on Waymarking.com

The NRHP nomination is very straightforward and I can add little to it from my own experience.

This is a red brick post-colonial or "Federal" style three-and-a-half story rectangular block with a two-and-a-half story wing extending south that seems to have been part of the original construction. The doors and windows of the main block of the first floor are recessed back a few inches and accented with arches. It is not know precisely when it was built. An inn stood on this site in 1807. "The present hotel building was probably built some time before the Erie Canal was opened to traffic in 1822." (visit link)

The interior is framed bard style with large timber posts supporting heavy wood girders carrying the floor joists. The first and second floors were divided into various rooms off a central stairhall, and the third floor was a large ballroom extending the length of the building and about two thirds of its width.

Various alterations were made over time, which detract from the building's original straightforward asthetic, but fortunately, these changes were reversed in restoration. The changes included lowering the ceiling in the ballroom and dividing it up into rooms for let.

A fire caused extensive damage in 1965, while it was the Pittsford Inn. Two years later, Andrew Wolfe, editor-publisher of the Genesee Vally Newspapers (weekly suburban newspaper that represents the only significant competition to the Rochester daily paper in the suburbs) bought the building and restored it - including the ballroom. "Most of the first floor had to be replaced but the second and third floor casings and stairway are original. The third floor ballroom was restored with the removal of later partitions and the false ceiling which had obscured the original elliptical vaulted plaster ceiling. The "spring" floor was rebuilt and a fireplace from the Bicknell House in Rochester was installed at one end." (visit link) Photos of this space can be found in the nomination packet (visit link)

It has been adaptively reused as commercial office space today.

Street address: 2 South Main Street Pittsford, NY USA 14534 County / Borough / Parish: Monroe County Year listed: 1974 Historic (Areas of) Significance: Architecture, Transportation, Commerce Periods of significance: 1800-1824 Historic function: Domestic: Hotel Current function: Commercial/Trade: Business Privately owned?: yes Primary Web Site: [Web Link] Secondary Website 1: [Web Link] Season start / Season finish: Not listed Hours of operation: Not listed Secondary Website 2: Not listed National Historic Landmark Link: Not listed

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Date Logged Log User Rating   12/11/2011 sagefemme visited it